Fines

Go to Admin › People › Fines to see every fine your district is still owed, add new ones, and record payments. A fine is a charge a person owes the district for a device or accessory: the fee on a repair, a lost or stolen device, a device not returned at year end, a spare never brought back, a missing charger or case, or anything else you name.

The page has two tabs: Fines, the list of what's owed, and Fine settings, which decides what a fine starts at and when a repair is free (Fine settings, Repair fees and free repairs). On that tab, Fine settings starts open and Repair fees and free repairs starts closed, showing what it's set to, like 1 free repair a year · Wear and tear after 4 years; select a section's name to open or close it.

A repair's fee becomes a fine on its own when the tech logs the repair (see Log a repair). Every other kind is added by hand with Add fine: here, on a person's profile under Repairs & Fines, or on a device's Repairs tab. When a device is marked with a status that means missing, schoolOS asks Charge a replacement fine? right there, filled in for the device and its owner.

You need View fines (fines.view) to open the page and export the list, and Manage fines (fines.manage) to add fines, move them along, waive or cancel them, post them to MySchoolBucks and import the paid CSV. Without Manage fines the page is read-only. Add assets doesn't cover fines: a tech who logs repairs can still charge a fee on one, but settling it is Manage fines. Roles that could open this page before have both to start with, and helpdesk agents who can see assets have View fines. Set them in the Fines area of the role editor; see Permissions reference.

The list shows fines on the devices you see in Assets, by your role's reach for assets: every device, the devices at the locations your teams cover (and your own), or the devices at your location. Devices assigned to you count wherever they are, and if your role is held to some departments, you see their devices' fines. A fine with no device (an Other fine) is your account's and shows to everyone who sees fines in it. The fine totals in the Fines column on the People list and Otto's answers about fines count the same fines.

Add a fine#

Select Add fine at the top right (or on a person's profile, or a device's Repairs tab), then:

1. Person. Who owes it. Search by name or email. On a profile or a device page this is already filled in.
2. Reason. One of your account's fine reasons, managed on Admin › Assets › Fine Management under Fines: Lost device, Stolen device, Device not returned, Spare not returned, Accessory, Other, and any you added, like Lost charger. A repair's fee is never added here; it comes from the repair.
3. Device. Scan or type the asset tag, serial or name. Optional for Accessory and Other. Picking a device fills in its owner when nobody is picked yet.
4. Amount. Filled in from the reason's default amount when it has one (Fine Management), else from your fine settings: the device's purchase price, its book value, a fixed amount, or an accessory's price. Change it if you like.
5. Note. Required for Other, so the office and the family know what it's for. A reason of your own says what it's for by its name.
6. Mark assessed now. On, the fine skips To assess and is billed as soon as it's added (and posts to MySchoolBucks right away when that's on).

For example, at year-end collection a high school is missing 14 Chromebooks. The tech marks each one Missing on its device page, answers Charge a replacement fine? with the purchase price filled in, and the 14 fines appear here as To assess for the bookkeeper. In August one turns up in a locker: the bookkeeper opens its fine's … menu and selects Cancel fine with the reason "Found in locker 212".

Repair fees and free repairs#

Some schools forgive a person's first accident each school year, never charge for a device that simply wore out, and always charge for damage on purpose. The Repair fees and free repairs section, on the Fine settings tab, sets this for your whole account.

For each damage type (Accidental, Deliberate, Maintenance and Not sure), pick what a fee does:

• Never charged. The repair is saved with no fine, and says why, like Wear and tear: not charged. It doesn't use a free repair.
• Uses a free repair, then charged. While the person has a free repair left this school year, the repair is saved with no fine and says Free repair 1 of 1 this school year. After that, the fee applies.
• Always charged. The fee the tech enters always applies, even with free repairs left.

Out of the box: Accidental uses a free repair, then charged; Deliberate is always charged; Maintenance and Not sure are never charged.

Below the damage types:

• Free repairs per person each school year. How many free repairs a person gets. 0, the default, means "Uses a free repair" damage is charged from the first repair.
• Treat as wear and tear after N years. Default 3. AI suggests Maintenance only for a device at least this old, from its purchased date (or its deployed date when there's no purchase date). 0 means any age.

A fee is only ever charged when the tech turns on Assess a fee to the user and enters it; these choices decide what happens to it. The tech sees the outcome in the form before saving. See Log a repair.

The school year is your fiscal year, counted in your district's time zone (America/New_York when your account has none; schoolOS sets it for your account). With a July start in Eastern time, a repair logged at 11:30 pm on June 30 counts in the old school year, and one at 12:10 am on July 1 in the new one.

Changing these never changes a repair already logged: a fine already issued stays, and a repair already made free stays free. Deleting a free repair gives it back. Select Save changes. You need Change account settings (account-settings.update) to change them; everyone who opens the page can read them, and a note says so when you can't change them.

Which should I choose?#

| Damage type | Never charged | Uses a free repair, then charged | Always charged | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Accidental | You never bill families for accidents. | You forgive the first one or two a year, then charge. Most 1:1 programs start here. | Your policy charges every accident. | | Deliberate | Rarely right; you'd handle it through discipline instead. | You give everyone the same allowance, whatever happened. | Damage on purpose is always the family's cost. The default. | | Maintenance | Old devices wearing out are your cost, not the family's. The default. | You treat wear like an accident. | Uncommon: families pay for upkeep. | | Not sure | Nobody is charged when the cause isn't known. The default. | You give the benefit of the doubt once, then charge. | You'd rather charge and refund later. |

For example, a district with a Chromebook 1:1 program keeps the defaults with 1 free repair and wear and tear after 3 years. In September a sixth grader drops his Chromebook: the $40 screen repair is Free repair 1 of 1 this school year. In March he drops it again: the $40 fine goes to To assess here. In May a four-year-old Chromebook's hinge gives out: the tech marks it Maintenance, and it's Wear and tear: not charged.

How a fine moves#

A fine has five states:

• To assess. It exists, but nobody has billed it yet.
• Assessed. It has been billed: posted to MySchoolBucks, or to a student account in your SIS. An assessed fine with some money in reads Partially paid.
• Paid. It's settled. Paid fines leave the page unless you filter for them.
• Waived. Forgiven after it was issued, with a reason. Nothing is owed. (A free repair is different: it never creates a fine at all.)
• Canceled. Issued in error, or resolved, like a lost device that turned up. Nothing is owed.

By default the page lists only fines that are to assess or assessed. Filter Status to Paid, Waived or Canceled to see those too, and to move one back: a paid fine can go back to Assessed, and a waived or canceled one back to To assess.

Every move is written to the device's history (and so the person's) and the audit log. Marking a fine paid by hand records a payment for the balance, so every paid fine has a payment record however it was settled: by hand, from the paid CSV, or from MySchoolBucks.

Search and filters#

• Search by person, email, device or reason... Matches the person's name or email, the device's name or tag, the reason, or the repair type or note.
• Filter, then Status (any of the five states), Reason, and Needs attention: Needs a person, and, when MySchoolBucks is connected, Can't post to MySchoolBucks and MySchoolBucks sync error. The MySchoolBucks page's warnings link here with the right one already picked.

Above the list, a line shows what the fines listed add up to, and how many there are. When a search or filter hides some, it also shows the total for all of them. When nothing matches, Clear search and filters shows them all again.

schoolOS staff pick the account whose fines they're reviewing from Account, at the top right.

Columns#

User, Email, Asset, Reason, Date, Status and Owed, with Charged and MySchoolBucks (whether the fine is posted there) hidden to start. Owed is what's still to pay. Once a payment or a waiver has changed it, the amount the fine was charged at shows under it in gray ($25.00 of $50.00); point at it to see the whole story, like Charged $50.00 · Paid $15.00 · Waived $10.00 · Owed $25.00. Charged is the amount the fine was issued for, which never changes when someone pays or part of it is forgiven. Use the columns button to show, hide or reorder them. The newest fines come first; select a header to sort by it instead. User opens the person's profile and Asset links to the device. Point at a posted fine's MySchoolBucks badge to see its fee ID, or use Copy MySchoolBucks fee ID in its … menu: MySchoolBucks has no link to a single fee, but searching for that ID there finds it. Reason shows the repair type or your note under the reason.

A fine always belongs to a person: Add fine asks who owes it, and a repair fee goes to the device's person, or to someone the tech picks when nobody has the device. A fine logged before that rule shows Needs a person in red, and a note above the list counts them (Show them filters the list to just those). Select Needs a person to search for who owes it; a repair's fee also puts that person on the repair. A fine that already has a person keeps them: to charge someone else, cancel it and add a new one.

The … menu at the end of a row has Open device, Open profile, and, if you hold Manage fines, the moves that fine can make from where it is: Mark assessed, Mark paid, Waive, Cancel fine and Mark to assess, plus Post to MySchoolBucks for an assessed fine not posted yet when MySchoolBucks is connected.

Mark fines assessed or paid#

Tick the fines you want, then choose from the toolbar at the bottom:

• Mark assessed. Use it once you've billed them.
• Mark paid. Use it once they're settled. They leave the list.
• Waive and Cancel fine. Each asks why first; the reason stays on the fine.
• Post to MySchoolBucks. Sends the assessed fines up as student fees. See MySchoolBucks.

A move a fine can't make from where it is (a paid fine can't be waived) is skipped, and the note says how many were.

Each change is written to the device's history and the audit log.

Which should I choose?#

| Option | Choose it when | | --- | --- | | Mark assessed | You've posted the fine somewhere the family will see it, like a student's fee account in your SIS, and are waiting for payment. It stays on this page as Assessed, so you can follow up. | | Mark paid | The money is in. You can skip Mark assessed: a fine paid on the spot, like cash at the front office when a cracked Chromebook comes in, can go straight from To assess to paid. | | Waive | The district forgives it: a hardship, a principal's decision, a device damaged in a way the policy doesn't cover. It's recorded, with your reason, but nothing is owed. | | Cancel fine | It shouldn't exist: added by mistake, charged to the wrong person, or the lost device came back. | | Post to MySchoolBucks | Families pay online in MySchoolBucks. schoolOS settles each fine as payments come in, so there's no CSV to send back. | | Import paid CSV | Payments are recorded somewhere else and there are too many to tick by hand. See below. |

For example, a middle school's tech logs 40 screen repairs with fees in the first month. The bookkeeper filters To assess, posts those fines to student accounts in the SIS, ticks them all and selects Mark assessed. Each Friday, the office sends back the payment template with Paid set to True on the fines families paid, and Import paid CSV clears them from the list.

Actions#

Actions, at the right of the toolbar:

• Add fine. The same as the button at the top right (Add a fine).
• Export current view. A CSV of exactly what's on screen: your search, filter, sort and visible columns. Use it for reports.
• Export payment template. A CSV with fixed columns: Fine ID, User Email, User Name, Asset, Reason, Status, Fine Amount, Balance and Paid. It includes the fines your search and filter show. Use it to collect payments. See below.
• Import paid CSV. Marks fines paid from a payment template.

When MySchoolBucks is connected, its logo is a button of its own beside Actions, for people with Manage fines:

• Post assessed fines. Every assessed fine in view that isn't posted yet. However many there are, they go up in batches of 500 until all are sent. To post every assessed fine in your account at once, use Post fines on the MySchoolBucks page.
• Check for payments now. Reads new payments from MySchoolBucks right away and marks the fines they pay, instead of waiting for the next scheduled check (once a day unless your district chose hourly or weekly on the MySchoolBucks page).
• Reconcile balances. Compares what each posted fine still owes with what MySchoolBucks was last sent, and sends any that differ. It also runs every night.
• MySchoolBucks settings. Opens its page under Integrations, for people with Manage integrations.

Next to the total above the list, a line says when MySchoolBucks was last checked for payments and when the next check is due, like MySchoolBucks: payments checked 4 minutes ago · next in about 23 hours. It turns red when the last check failed; point at it to see why.

Pick Export current view for a report someone will read, such as the list of what's owed for your business office. Pick Export payment template for a file someone will fill in and send back: only it has the Fine ID that Import paid CSV needs.

Mark fines paid from a CSV#

Use this when payments are recorded somewhere else, such as a school office or a payment system.

1. Select Actions, then Export payment template.
2. In the file, change Paid from False to True on each fine that has been paid. yes, y, 1, x and paid also count. Leave the other rows as they are, or delete them.
3. Select Actions, then Import paid CSV, and choose the file.

schoolOS matches each row by Fine ID, so two fines of the same amount for the same person never get mixed up. The file needs a Fine ID column and a Paid column, and can mark up to 5,000 fines paid at a time. The other columns are there to help you read it, and are ignored.

When it's done, a note above the list shows how many fines were marked paid and for how much. Rows are skipped if the fine was already paid, waived or canceled, isn't in your reach, or isn't a fine in your account. Each fine marked paid this way gets a payment record that says it came from the CSV.

Fine settings#

The Fine settings tab sets what a new fine starts at. Every amount can still be changed on the fine itself, and changing these never changes a fine already added. You need Change account settings to change them.

• Lost, stolen or not returned. Where those fines start when their reason has no default amount of its own: The device's purchase price (the default; nothing when the device has none), The device's book value (depreciated) under your depreciation schedules (falls back to the purchase price), A fixed replacement amount you enter (the same for every device), or Always entered by hand.
• Accessory price list. Name each accessory and what it costs (a charger $25, a case $15). Add fine offers the list for an Accessory fine and fills in the price.
• Post fines to MySchoolBucks automatically. When MySchoolBucks is connected, an assessed fine goes up as a student fee the moment it's assessed. Off, assessed fines wait for you to post them, here or on the MySchoolBucks page. The same switch is on the MySchoolBucks page.

For example, a district that self-insures sets A fixed replacement amount of $150 so every lost Chromebook costs the same, and lists Charger at $30 and Case at $20.